[B-Greek] Online teaching tools
John Sanders
john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com
Mon Dec 10 00:53:06 EST 2007
George has the tale only partially correct. Paul actually used an annotated
version of Demosthenes abridged lexicon by Cicero with a foreword by
Nero. Unfortunately
Paul wrote some disparaging comments about Nero's pronunciation of Greek (he
used what we would now call Erasmian pronunciation). Nero caught wind of
those comments and rigged fraudulent charges of arson against Paul; and as
they say, the rest is history.
Such is the passion of pronunciation partisans.
I do have a few comments about the subject.
Native English speakers ought not to throw stones at the difficulty of
spelling Greek words, to (two? Too?) spell English words is very difficult
for non-native English speakers, or so (sew? soul? sole?) I am constantly
reminded here in China. Just as we expect they who learn English as a
second language to master the spelling rules, so we should probably put in
the extra effort to master the Greek rules.
I for one have no qualms about reading aloud Shakespeare in my modern
American English accent. I am not offended by those who wish to speak
Shakespeare in an Elizabethan manner, but feel no obligation to do so
myself. But I will consider it rather strange; no, rather bizaar in the
extreme if someone demanded we read Shakespeare in the pronunciation of King
Alfred the Great's Old English form, even if it is full throated and brings
out the robustness of the vowels.
There is a rendition of the Lords's Prayer by Elli Lampeti on Ellopos.net. I
think it is well done, and for me it has a diction and a cadence that I
attempt to model.
John Sanders
Suzhou, China
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